Eurovision Song Contest

[TV.Cynic]

Australia did well with the international juries but just 2 votes from the public is very problematic - second last on the night.

[sav001]

Australia also came 2nd with the juries in the semifinal but was only 8th in the televote. I think because on the Saturday night a large portion of the viewing audience are casual viewers, a lot of people don’t vote for Australia because we are not in Europe, no matter how good of a song we send.

[TelevisionAU]

@TV.Cynic

Australia did well with the international juries but just 2 votes from the public is very problematic - second last on the night.

The novelty factor of Australia being in there seemed to wear off after Guy Sebastian and Dami Im, Kate Miller-Heidke did well but Isaiah Firebrace and Jessica Mauboy also ranked very low in the public televotes in the Grand Final.

Montaigne’s entry last year also only got 2 votes from the televote in the Semi-Final, so we didn’t even qualify for the GF.

[Jeffmister]

@sav001

I think because on the Saturday night a large portion of the viewing audience are casual viewers, a lot of people don’t vote for Australia because we are not in Europe, no matter how good of a song we send.

The televote is Australia’s achilles heel - our entries have generally done well in the jury voting but then either struggle or (in the past few years) completely bomb in the televote. Even in 2016 when Dami Im came close to winning (and arguably should have done so), the difference came down to Ukraine getting more maximum points in the televote.

I posted this last year but think its worth revisiting considering SBS and the EBU will soon have discussions about Australia’s future involvement in Eurovision and a big part of that discussion has to be what’s the aim/purpose if it’s decided Australia will continue competing in the competition:

@Jeffmister

If it’s just to boost Australia’s interest in the competition (and add an extra dimension to it), not only have we done well over the years (this year aside) but we’ve arguably ‘punched above our weight’ a few times. If the goal though is for Australia to eventually win, the televoting disadvantage we have is a serious issue. Yes we came 7th in 2019 but we came last the year before and 2nd last in 2017. Heck, even the year Damni In was runner-up (2016) we came 4th . The brutal truth is Australia can’t win until and unless there’s an entry which gets into the top 3 with both the jury voting and the televote - we don’t have the geographical/political televote advantages which can ‘lift’ a song which doesn’t do as well in the jury voting.

[MrJ]

I think we need to start accepting that Europeans do not love us the way we think. Last time I was over there, there were a lot of groans once they heard my accent.

[Chris]

@Brianc68

It won the jury vote by a clear margin, end of story.

I’m not disputing UKs result at all but I wouldn’t call 25 points a clear margin. It won but was quite close between the top countries.

[TV.Cynic]

I think the first live broadcast of the Eurovision final was 2017. These are some of the Eurovision audiences before that.

Year	Audience
2016	409,000
2015	592,000
2014	476,000
2013	581,000
2012	531,000
2011	503,000

[TelevisionAU]

@TV.Cynic

I think the first live broadcast of the Eurovision final was 2017. These are some of the Eurovision audiences before that.

Numbers would have been drifting downwards even before then. IIRC I first watched online via a live stream from the Eurovision website around 2009. A lot of others not wanting to wait for SBS’ delayed prime time broadcast would have been moving towards the same.

[Brianc68]

@Jeffmister

@sav001

I think because on the Saturday night a large portion of the viewing audience are casual viewers, a lot of people don’t vote for Australia because we are not in Europe, no matter how good of a song we send.

The televote is Australia’s achilles heel - our entries have generally done well in the jury voting but then either struggle or (in the past few years) completely bomb in the televote. Even in 2016 when Dami Im came close to winning (and arguably should have done so), the difference came down to Ukraine getting more maximum points in the televote.

I posted this last year but think its worth revisiting considering SBS and the EBU will soon have discussions about Australia’s future involvement in Eurovision and a big part of that discussion has to be what’s the aim/purpose if it’s decided Australia will continue competing in the competition:

@Jeffmister

If it’s just to boost Australia’s interest in the competition (and add an extra dimension to it), not only have we done well over the years (this year aside) but we’ve arguably ‘punched above our weight’ a few times. If the goal though is for Australia to eventually win, the televoting disadvantage we have is a serious issue. Yes we came 7th in 2019 but we came last the year before and 2nd last in 2017. Heck, even the year Damni In was runner-up (2016) we came 4th . The brutal truth is Australia can’t win until and unless there’s an entry which gets into the top 3 with both the jury voting and the televote - we don’t have the geographical/political televote advantages which can ‘lift’ a song which doesn’t do as well in the jury voting.

Your points are valid.

Even in Dami’s case she wouldn’t have won that year if Ukraine didn’t score the public sympathy vote. I firmly believe 3rd placed Russia (Sergey) would have won easily on the back of the public vote if it wasn’t for their atrack on Crimea.

[JBar]

@Jeffmister

I posted this last year but think its worth revisiting considering SBS and the EBU will soon have discussions about Australia’s future involvement in Eurovision and a big part of that discussion has to be what’s the aim/purpose if it’s decided Australia will continue competing in the competition:

As long as Australia pays to be in the competition, i don’t see why they would force them out.

Isreal is certainly not in Europe either, so what’s the difference? And even though they are close Europe, all the countries in Asia Minor like Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are certainly not Europe either. Turkey just sneaks in with 95% of its land mass in Asia Minor too.

[TelevisionAU]

@JBar

As long as Australia pays to be in the competition, i don’t see why they would force them out.

The money will win out in the end, as long as Australia is willing to pay then EBU will welcome us in.

Question is, at what point is it no longer financially viable from here? In the early years of Australia’s participation the cost was worn by Sony Music. I don’t know if that is still the case or if SBS now has to pay up? In which case, it may have to draw a line at some point and say it’s too expensive.

[JBar]

I agee. Everything comes down to cost. As soon it is no longer financially viable then SBS will withdraw. The shows don’t seem to be getting the ratings they used to but that well may be because they screen it live in the mornings and repeat it at night.

[TelevisionAU]

@JBar

The shows don’t seen to be getting the ratings they used to but that well may be because they screen it live in the mornings and repeat it at night.

the audience does appear to be split between the morning and prime time shows, which was to be expected. There would be a decent number of viewers also watching online. SBS presumably also gets a cut from merchandising, e.g. selling the ESC CDs and DVDs which carry SBS branding on them.

[Chris]

@TelevisionAU

Numbers would have been drifting downwards even before then. IIRC I first watched online via a live stream from the Eurovision website around 2009. A lot of others not wanting to wait for SBS’ delayed prime time broadcast would have been moving towards the same.

Yep there are so many other places that you can watch it prior to the primetime coverage now. From the morning live broadcast, recordings of it and there are streaming / online options available during the day. You could even watch on the Eurovision YouTube channel yesterday. I also think that if SBS aired the semi-finals in primetime the same day that they air (rather than delayed on the weekend) they would get more eyeballs overall.

[TV.Cynic]

@TelevisionAU

Numbers would have been drifting downwards even before then.

They are the highest ratings that I can find for Eurovision - they were lower prior to 2011.

[sav001]

The first live broadcast was 2015, the first year of Australia’s participation.

[TelevisionAU]

@glen2006

And on the contest going to Ukraine in 2023 - they said in the post-event press conference that the current intention is to host the contest there. But it is still very early days to confirm it can take place. In any case, hosting rights would generally then generally be offered to the country who finished 2nd (the UK), but otherwise I’m sure another broadcaster would put their hand up.

Thread on Twitter lists the countries that have put their hand up to host ESC should Ukraine not be able to https://twitter.com/des__cribe/status/1525893117387624449

Italy
Netherlands
Poland (Broadcaster TVP said yes but this relies on discussions with government)
Sweden
Spain

The UK has not offered (yet?)

https://twitter.com/des__cribe/status/1526066864316895232?s=20&t=mIbartnVaJLVk6rCl0Ll0A

[JBar]

Could be a bad look if they reject the offer though. Why even compete if you don’t want to win and host? It work against them in votes, in the future.

[observa]

@Tom_TV7

It felt like since Dami Im’s Sound of Silence (which I felt should’ve won, but obviously the European public disagreed) Australia’s position in Eurovision hasn’t been that strong at all. We’ve never even placed in the top 5 since 2016 and our songs are good but didn’t have the killer hit it needed to take on some of the best European numbers. I hope in next year’s Eurovision Australia’s representative will be able to bring on that ‘mega hit’ that either leaves all the other European countries’ numbers for dead or at least be competitive. Would be nice if Australian can clinch a win in its time participating in Eurovision.

Australia shouldn’t be in the competition, us in the comp almost has a sense of colonialism to it, “nice competition you have there, mind if we take a piece”

We’ve sent average songs the last few years and that coupled with the fact our novelty has worn off, we won’t do well again, or win, and there was a consistent trend line on that, even before this year.

Dami Im’s song was the perfect combination of a killer song and the fact we were still shiny and new.
We can only produce one of those two items now.

I quite liked the 2021 final because it didn’t involve Myf and Joel on the Koolaid about how well Australia was going to do. It felt like a traditional final without the ring-in.
The televoting numbers for Australia tell the story, our novelty has worn off and we’ve overstayed our welcome. Our song this year was vocally stronger compared to a lot of this year’s other songs, but still virtually no love from the public.

Once our time is up in it, it’s time to make a polite exit, and the competition can try and focus on bringing some countries back in that haven’t competed for a while, eg Luxembourg, Slovakia.

[TelevisionAU]

@JBar

Could be a bad look if they reject the offer though. Why even compete if you don’t want to win and host?

if who rejects the offer?

And I don’t think it’s too outrageous to consider that there are countries that are happy to take part but not want the responsibility or cost of hosting.